Der Bingle.

Search: "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby," "Bob White," "I'm an Old Cowhand," "Mexicali Rose," "My Honey's Loving Arms," "Pennies From Heaven," "Don't Fence Me In," "Home on the Range," tons more.

Destroy: that duet with Bowie.

Is the Giddins bio worth reading? I flipped through it, but I'm not sure if I want to know every little thing about Bing's -life_, y'know?

Words fail me

Going "taking sides" here would be a bit dumb, but I can't help but favourably compare him to Sinatra. With Sinatra you have all that baggage, the image of this total asshole who hates the world and himself playing Vegas and releasing record after record of utterly depressing music. Which works great for "I'm A Fool To Want You" and "The September Of My Years", but when I hear, say, his version of "Night And Day", even though I know it's pretty flawless I find it hard to get into, because I can't really stick Sinatra's vocal persona into the guise of someone who actually cares about another human being and is happy about that. I mean, I'm sure the stereotype is unfair to Frank to some degree, but as with Elvis, he did contribute heavily to it himself. And he hasn't gotten his Guralnick yet (has he?)

So while listening to Sinatra gives me the macho manic-depressive This Is Serious Music vibe, Bing is just a lot of FUN, you know? He always seems to relish every single note he sings. Amateurist otm about this:

i love how he can't help but jazz up everything, even a christmas carol in latin.

How about those "Road To..." movies?

I bought a pipe, the other day.

"Slow Boat To China", with Rosemary Clooney
"Now You Has Jazz", with Louis Armstrong
"Too Romantic", with Dorothy Lamour
"Alexander's Ragtime Band", with Al Jolson (speaking of, has anyone ever tried getting through a whole album's worth of this guy? Sheesh.)
"My Blue Heaven", with Harpo Marx on harp, and preceded by a comedy bit featuring Bing, Gary Cooper and the Marx Brothers (this can all be found on Proper's "Kings Of Komedy" box)

He gets a lot of props in "Heartaches By The Numbers" for giving Country music crossover success.

For what it's worth, David Lee Roth is/was a Jolson fan.

i'm listening to his recording of "brother, can you spare a dime." it's one of the most harrowing performances ever, particularly the way he almost screams "I'M YOUR PAL..." at the end.

A 2001 biography of Crosby by Village Voice jazz critic Gary Giddins says that Louis Armstrong's influence on Bing "extended to his love of marijuana." Bing smoked it during his early career when it was legal and "surprised interviewers" in the 1960s and 70s by advocating its decriminalization, as did Armstrong. According to Giddins, Bing told his son Gary to stay away from alcohol ("It killed your mother") and suggested he smoke pot instead. Gary said, "There were other times when marijuana was mentioned and he'd get a smile on his face." Gary thought his father's pot smoking had influenced his easy-going style in his films.

Didn't he also have a lot to do at one point with tequila's high profile in this country?

seriously pretty psyched to listen to this:

http://www.mosaicrecords.com/prodinfo.asp?number=245-MD-CD

Thought this might be a Johnny Mercer centennial-related revive. What's that song they duet "Save The Bones For Henry Jones."

Oh man, that set looks amazing. Nice to also hear Giddens is going to actually finish the second volume of the definitive Bing bio; Pocketful of Dreams is one of my favorite music bios ever.

I'm all mixed up, that was Nat "King" Cole and Johnny Mercer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw_qvxrtaFE

Just realized that Bing died pretty much exactly two months after Elvis. I remember the enormous amount of press Elvis's passing got, but nothing about Bing. Wonder what was actually said at the time. Guess I'll have to wait to see it through Gary Giddins's eyes.

OK, that radio thing looks pretty good. Sometimes the satellite radio plays some of his old radio shows from the 40s and the guests are amazing: one time he had Les Paul, Burl Ives and Peggy Lee- on the same show! There was a lot of fun to be had with Burl Ives pretending to be frightened by Les Paul's new-fangled electric guitar. At one point Bing did a little bit of a Bob Wills imitation.

Loved the way his stuff was used in The Singing Detective.

You've got 14 hours left to listen to this BBC radio special http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pd812

Radio transcriptions has some annoying roller-rink organ in the background as somebody noted elsewhere and a few of the songs are clinkers but in general the material is good and the singing is top-notch.

I think the first word of this article was supposed to be "If": http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304017404575165761704698650.html?mod=WSJ_article_MoreIn

Cole borders on the annoying when he switches to electric organ
I spaced out for a second and thought I was listening to a Firesign Theatre soap opera parody.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m44digMeO81qjcktxo1_500.jpg

Bing Crosby in an outfit custom made by Levi's. The apogee of the Canadian Tuxedo.

was kinda the Justin Timberlake of the 1930s

Kathryn Crosby sings and reminisces tonight at the NYPL for the Performing Arts: http://www.nypl.org/locations/tid/55/node/232777?lref=55%2Fcalendar&hspace=241263

http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/recording.technology.history/derbingle.html

Nice to also hear Giddens (sic) is going to actually finish the second volume of the definitive Bing bio

and eight years later, here it is!

https://notesonfilm1.com/2018/11/12/a-book-recommendation/

the star of a million grandma's wet dreams

― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, March 25, 2003 1:57 PM (fifteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Saw that book in the Strand yesterday and was happy that he finished it, not sure when I will read.

Enjoying his Xmas material right now in some kind of streaming Bingle Block.

https://open.substack.com/pub/tedgioia/p/four-perspectives-on-bing-crosby-a5a

vingt regards der Bingle